War veterans get opportunities to return to sky

11:54 PM,
Jul. 16, 2014

Vietnam veteran Ronald Keen Wednesday looks out the window of a de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver on a flight organized by the Tennessee State Veterans' Home. Keen is a retired Air Force senior master sergeant.

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Harold Thune, 94, says he is not afraid to fly even though he crash landed three times in World War II.

In fact, Thune anticipated the flight he went on Wednesday for a year, he said.

Thune, a retired Air Force first lieutenant, and Ronald Keen, 75, a retired Air Force senior master sergeant, took separate flights in a small de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver thanks to program organizers with the Tennessee State Veterans' Home where they live in Murfreesboro. It is the fourth such flight the assisted-living center has provided for residents, said Executive Director Ed Harries. ...